Book Review (Rucksack): The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Written by Oscar Wilde in 1890

The Raccoon: Oscar Wilde’s philosophical novel follows the corruption of a young aristocrat after his wish to preserve his beauty eternally is granted.

UNMASKED:  The Picture of Dorian Gray has been adapted into film at least seventeen times, as well as converted into a handful of songs.  After reading the book, I am not surprised by its fame and legacy.  Wilde’s novel, although published at the end of the 19th century, is a cinematic masterpiece.

The main reason that the novel is as alluring as a movie is its characters.  Dorian Gray possesses a shockingly different mindset from other characters in parallel situations; Dorian is naive and carefree, and, rather than purposely sell his soul, he is influenced by another character, Lord Henry.  I could never hate Dorian because he was a victim to Henry’s predatory nature; his inability to age also robs him of the chance to outgrow Henry’s whimsical and hedonistic world view.

Henry’s hold over Dorian’s mind is one segment of the peculiar love triangle between Dorian, Henry, and Basil, the painter of the all-important portrait.  Wilde had to edit out much of the “homoeroticism” that contemporary critics detested, leaving an abstract, unspoken love between the three characters. However, this actually enhances the novel.  Basil worships Dorian as a muse, Henry feels a need to dominate and shape Dorian, and Dorian feels that Basil is the only one who understands him, while simultaneously craving Henry’s voice more than any music.  All of these occur without an underlying physical attraction, displaying a raw, Wuthering Heights-esque type of love that most authors shy away from.

Of course, the primary focus of the Picture of Dorian Gray is to grapple with the idea of the soul and what it means to live well.  Wilde doesn’t deny that Dorian’s lavish, pleasure-seeking lifestyle brings him unparalleled happiness and makes him the envy of society, but Dorian ruins the lives of everyone he spends time with, and his likeness in the painting slowly rots with his wickedness, for no pleasure is meant to last eternally.  The changes in the painting also function as a brilliant literary device, creating the feeling of a clock counting down to the moment where Dorian’s sins would finally turn around and crush him.

The Picture of Dorian Gray holds romance, action, suspense, humor, and horror, and manages to deliver this through scenes comprised mostly of conversation.  Wilde portrays immortality as not just a curse, but a sickness, which left me constantly on the edge of my seat, my eyes disturbingly transfixed to the crime scene.

Strengths:

• The story is founded on the idea of a person being able to view his own soul and have it rest outside of his body, and this alone is hauntingly beautiful.
• 99% of Henry’s dialogue are proverbs that the character appears to improvise on the spot.  Henry is the Barney Stinson of Victorian England, and his self-contradicting and controversial theories carry the book’s humor.

Weaknesses:

• Wilde writes with a magnifying glass, focusing on specific parts of the narrative and paying very little attention to others.  I often grew bored of tangents, and I wish the author had understood that only one or two examples are needed to explain a point, not twenty.
• This magnification also led to entire sections of Dorian’s life being glossed over.
• There is unresolved sexual tension between the three main characters.

Rating: 18/20 love triangles

Ideal Setting: Read this before your birthday to ensure that your next wish doesn’t slowly destroy your soul as you pursue a lifestyle based on sensual pleasure.